I've Not Just Become My Mother
Dec. 31st, 2012 08:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cinema_babeI've become my grandmother!!!
When I was a kid Saturday at 12 noon was American Bandstand and 12:30 was Soul Train; a solid hour of the pop music that was the soundtrack of my earliest days. By the time I was old enough to make it to midnight on New Years Eve, Dick Clark had an annual show, "New Years Rockin' Eve". He generally had the same popular acts that he had on American Bandstand so I (and later my sister) liked to wach it. Generally this was not problem until about 11:55.
My grandparents had a New Years Eve tradition that stretched back to the days before the family owned a TV at midnight they would listen to Guy Lombardo and his Orchestra strike up Auld Lang Syne and they would dance in the living room*. Every year between 11:50 and 11:55, as the old man was one foot out of the door, they had to have Guy Lombardo playing no exceptions. In the mid or late 70s Lombardo died (actually, my Poppy died in 1978 so Guy Lombardo must have died before then). New Years Eve that year they tuned in as they always did but it must have not been the same because the next year they relinquished the big TV to us kids and we got to watch Dick Clark.
Since then, I've usually been able to catch him because it seemed like it was the show that everyone who had a TV on was watching. In clubs, private parties, small gatherings, at home. The two times I was in Time Square took up a spot where I could him, (I never got that close but I could still see the action even if they seemed as big as Lego people).
Dick ceased to be "cool" long ago but I kept watching. One year My ex and I tried Carson Daily and bailed before midnight because it just didn't feel right. He had a serious stroke and I suffered through Ryan Seacrest (seriously, that guy must have sold his soul to the Devil to be so mediocre and have so much success) just to get a glimpse of Dick at Midnight. Um, well, you know what I mean.
Anyway, now he's gone and what have I did I do tonight? Flipped over the ABC (Channel 7 in this part of the country) because it's New Year's Eve and that's Dick Clark's night. When I was a kid I didn't get wanting to listen to some fossil of a musician at midnight.
Now I get it in spades.
(On an unrelated tangent, I discovered after my grandfather died that my grandparents used to go to dances when they were dating because it was a cheap way to have fun during the depression. I didn't know how good they were until after my grandmother died and I found out they had ribbons from win, place or showing in dance competitions. It was the Depression so there was no money but they apparently had some impressive bragging rights. Of course by the time I knew them those days were long behind them.)
When I was a kid Saturday at 12 noon was American Bandstand and 12:30 was Soul Train; a solid hour of the pop music that was the soundtrack of my earliest days. By the time I was old enough to make it to midnight on New Years Eve, Dick Clark had an annual show, "New Years Rockin' Eve". He generally had the same popular acts that he had on American Bandstand so I (and later my sister) liked to wach it. Generally this was not problem until about 11:55.
My grandparents had a New Years Eve tradition that stretched back to the days before the family owned a TV at midnight they would listen to Guy Lombardo and his Orchestra strike up Auld Lang Syne and they would dance in the living room*. Every year between 11:50 and 11:55, as the old man was one foot out of the door, they had to have Guy Lombardo playing no exceptions. In the mid or late 70s Lombardo died (actually, my Poppy died in 1978 so Guy Lombardo must have died before then). New Years Eve that year they tuned in as they always did but it must have not been the same because the next year they relinquished the big TV to us kids and we got to watch Dick Clark.
Since then, I've usually been able to catch him because it seemed like it was the show that everyone who had a TV on was watching. In clubs, private parties, small gatherings, at home. The two times I was in Time Square took up a spot where I could him, (I never got that close but I could still see the action even if they seemed as big as Lego people).
Dick ceased to be "cool" long ago but I kept watching. One year My ex and I tried Carson Daily and bailed before midnight because it just didn't feel right. He had a serious stroke and I suffered through Ryan Seacrest (seriously, that guy must have sold his soul to the Devil to be so mediocre and have so much success) just to get a glimpse of Dick at Midnight. Um, well, you know what I mean.
Anyway, now he's gone and what have I did I do tonight? Flipped over the ABC (Channel 7 in this part of the country) because it's New Year's Eve and that's Dick Clark's night. When I was a kid I didn't get wanting to listen to some fossil of a musician at midnight.
Now I get it in spades.
(On an unrelated tangent, I discovered after my grandfather died that my grandparents used to go to dances when they were dating because it was a cheap way to have fun during the depression. I didn't know how good they were until after my grandmother died and I found out they had ribbons from win, place or showing in dance competitions. It was the Depression so there was no money but they apparently had some impressive bragging rights. Of course by the time I knew them those days were long behind them.)
